During the design of a vehicle various components, such as exhaust systems, are routed in accordance with design needs and the space available. If these components are sufficiently close to the floor of the vehicle, heat generated by the components can be transferred to the floor and consequently radiated into the interior of the vehicle. This heat may cause discomfort to the occupants of the vehicle. It is thus desirable to be able to sense the temperature of the floor in the interior of the vehicle to determine whether the temperature will be acceptable, to optimize the location and routing of heat-generating components, and to measure the impact of vehicle design changes on the temperature of the floor.
However, it is difficult to accurately sense the temperature of the floor. There are inherent variations in thermal coupling between temperature sensors and floor materials such as carpet and mats, the thermal coupling being dependent upon the amount of pressure applied to the sensors to press them into contact with the floor. For example, if a temperature measurement is made without pressing the temperature sensors into firm contact with the floor, the resulting measurement will be lower than the temperature perceived by an occupant whose foot is pressed firmly against the floor. Conversely, applying a force greater than that typical of a human foot will result in a measured temperature that is higher than the temperature that would be perceived by the occupant.
Weights may be employed to press temperature sensors into contact with vehicle flooring. However, using weights such as sandbags results in erroneous temperature measurements because of their relatively large area of weight distribution as compared to a human foot, causing variations in the amount of pressure applied to the distributed temperature sensors. Further, the weights tend to insulate underlying floor area, causing measurement error. There is a need for a fixture to position temperature sensors proximate the floor of a vehicle in a manner generally simulating that of a human foot in order to obtain temperature measurements that relate to the temperature perceived by an occupant of the vehicle.